No Laughing Matter

Editorial cartoonists,  on the other hand, believe that humor may be just what the public needs to see the news of the day from a fresh point of view.

Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh is currently featuring samples of comics by Pittsburgh’s Sy Hungerford (1889-1983) at the Oakland branch. Hungerford created more than 50,000 cartoons over a period of 70 years.  Hungerford once said of his style, "You can’t preach. Bitterness and viciousness defeat their own purpose. Make people smile and think while they’re smiling.”

Born in Indiana and raised in Parkersburg, West Virginia, Hungerford published his first cartoon in the Parkersburg Sentinel in 1903. He joined the Pittsburgh Post Gazette in 1927, and continued his long career until his retirement in 1977 at the age of 89.

In 1962, Hungerford drew this comic as Ted Kennedy began his run for the Senate. In the summer of 2019, Kennedy's  grand nephew, Joe Kennedy, announced his bid for a Senate seat.

During the course of his career, Hungerford chronicled wars,  politics, government, sports, and daily life.  In 1954,  Hungerford took on the eternal distain for taxes, as well as big government versus the little man.

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Editorial cartoons by Herb Block (1909-2001), are on permanent
display at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. While Hungerford was publishing in the Pittsburgh Sun and Pittsburgh Post Gazette, Pulitzer Prize winner Herb Block, who penned his works under the name “Herblock," documented national and international events over a period of 70 years with the Washington Post. Just as Hungerford’s retrospective exhibit shows that history repeats itself, Block took on topics that are still timely today. This cartoon appeared in 1968, after the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr.

The rich heritage of  editorial cartoons in the Unites States comes full circle with this drawing Block created in 1972, prior to the resignation of Richard Nixon.

The Cy Hungerford Collection is currently on view on the second floor of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, Oakland. The Library of Congress commemorates the long career of Herb Block at the Herblock Gallery on the ground floor of the Thomas Jefferson Building.